Self-educated and an impressive natural speaker, Frederick Douglass changed the way America looked at African-Americans. Having been seeing only as property not worth humanity, slaves were considered the lowest of the low and good only for manual labour.
Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Maryland. His date of birth, but Douglass celebrated his birthday on February 14. The year of birth his also unknown and is estimated to be 1818.
Douglass was separated from his mother while still an infant and was raised by his grandmother until her death when he was 10. His childhood as a male slave was no different than any others except that his master’s wife once taught him to the English alphabet despite it being illegal to teach slaves how to read. She stopped when her husband reprimanded her, but Douglass continued to teach himself secretly and even began giving reading lessons until they were violently stopped.
Inspired by the freedom of the woman he loved named Anne Murray, Douglass managed to escape slavery on his third attempt. He disguised himself as a freed sailor and took a boat to New York and invited Anne up North and the two married only eleven days later. They had five children together.
Since gaining his freedom, Douglass traveled, wrote and spoke publicly about the state of slavery and fought to not only end slavery in the United States, but to accomplish equality among all citizens. He was a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and believed that all human beings should be equal without any discrimination at all.
Douglas died in 1895 after suffering a massive heart attack and stroke. Through out his life, he penned three autobiographies which were incredibly well received. Some people were suspicious of them and didn’t believe that a black man could write so elegantly and competently and many people also were awed by his oratory talent.